String Sextet in G flat Major, 2nd movement (My best mov in my life)

So this is the final draft of the entire 2nd movement of my String Sextet. I can confidently say this is my best movement of music ever written up to date. The movement is divided into three parts: Lamentoso, Fugue a6 and the Return. The first two parts of the movements have been posted before in below links:

Lamentoso:

Fugue a6:

If you want to skip to the newest content I compose, you may skip to 20:16. The musical analysis of the Lamentoso and Fugue have already been done in the link posted above so I won’t repeat it here.

Here is the YT link and score of the movement:

(Final Draft) String Sextet 2nd mov with last page.pdf

Here is the YC post to the first mov of the same Sextet:

Here is the structure of the movement:

00:00 Lamentoso The Eden in the 1st mov is great but man, come on and live in the real world. All sorts of tragedies happening and what ground do you have to claim the transcendence? I especially love the outburst in 4:59 and the passage starts from 8:53.

11:47 Fugue a6. This part is totally inspired by Vince’s @Thatguy v2.0 comment on my first movement “to write a dense fugue”, also to further explore the fugato in the 1st mov. Like @Giacomo925 said, this part summarises the sadness of the first 20 minutes of the movement. It always leaves me in awe that my favorite C minor passage, the absolute climax of the whole piece, lies in minute 30 exactly.

The fugue aims to end on desperate terms but I won’t allow it. I try to give it a fight by recalling the pentatonic ideal even though in the wrong key of the tritone C major as hinted in the pentatonic section of the fugue, but the power is diminished. I need some purification for the paradise regained. Thx to @Luis Hernándezfor introducing me to tritone substitution in this part. 

The chant (22:01) begins with self murmuring of viola, occasionally inviting mysticism recalling 7:55 in Lamentoso and sadness of the 1st subject of the fugue. Two violas play together with the texture of a parallel organum. After a sad cry some more primitive power comes in to recall the passion and good of human beings, the theme is from b.27 of 1st mov. It gets agitated and experiences an epiphany in the form of Bartok Pizz. Both the chant and the folk melody is built around the 025 set! And the 025 set is the essence of the pentatonic scale! Furthermore a quartal chord is the further essence of 025 set, and hence the core of the whole pentatonic scale! Discovering this, the fury cannot be stopped. It leaves me in wonder how on earth can I write this thing out.

After returning to the tonic key in 27:00, I decided to conceive it as a one off climax with build up. The  idea is inspired by my playing of Beethoven’s op.110 when he did the same thing in the last movement as well. There is no “development” but only realisation of Tao in this imperfect world. There are appetizers to the ultra climax, first introducing the two most important themes sparingly, then in 27:16 theme in b.35 of 1st mov which is in fact inspired by my own Clarinet Quintet in C minor, and then an appetizer fugato responding to the lament in b.148 of the Lamentoso which is based on the opening theme. 

The entrée of Ultra Climax appears in 28:38, first is the first theme in tonic by first violin, viola, and cello, then second theme in C major by second violin, viola and cello. The playing of tritone is to prove Tao‘s omnipotence, also respond to the first mov and the fugue with the F# and C minor relationship. Using all 3 instruments for me is the resonance of Heaven, Earth and Human when they finally sing together the Tao they shared. I think I really feel the Chinese philosopher Tang Chun-i’s Realm of Heavenly Morality here. The modulation to Ab major, responding to b. 294 and 644 of 1st mov, complete what’s left undone there and finally Gb major is in triumph. A pedal point on a tritone is funny for me. The cello overlapping the violin is signifying earth and heaven interaction which is considered auspicious in Chinese classics I-ching. I am always in awe of the power exhibited here and wonder who’s actually the composer of this passage.

The next passage in 30:07 is the heterophonic version of the 1st theme, which is where I was inspired miraculously by a Chinese music group. 

Next is the in extremis passage in 30:57. It’s the immanent version of the 1st theme. I was imagining what my friend’s thinking on his last day of life. The texture is probably inspired by the film music in Kurosawa’s Ikiru when the main character was swinging on the park’s swing to await his death. I quote Bach’s St. John Passion here for my friend’s name, and I find out that the lyrics fit too. I wish him to rest in peace and return to Tao. The final ending is probably inspired by the ending of Chopin’s Fantasie in F minor. I can never believe I would end the whole thing this positive in an absolute way. The whole passage always leaves me in tears.

After writing the Lamentoso in May 2024 I had no power and inspiration at all to write anything in the Sextet since I was suffering in my full time job. I started picking up by working on the C# minor Piano Sonata first. After finishing that in Jan 2025 I felt like my negative power was expressed out, leaving the goods for this Sextet. I then went for a walk on 10 Feb 2025 and had a miracle, inspired by a Chinese music group, which turned on my creative power and I fervently completed the entire thing in just 18 days, when I had zero notes written in the past 9 months. It’s such a miracle I could have finished this piece this quick and good.

My dedicatee Mr. Johnson Ho had already passed away last year. It's a shame that this piece couldn’t be completed when he’s alive, but I would be forever thankful for his inspiration. Special thanks must have been granted to my great friend Mr. Vince Meyer @Thatguy v2.0 for making this perfect audio and many ideas, and being a great friend, but I will leave it to the final version of the whole Sextet.  Also a very special thanks must be given to my ex-boss. Thanks to her mistreatment, I have the pain to reflect on my own, the drive to finish the whole Sextet in a fury and the time to complete it when I was forced to resign for my own mental health. Foremost of course I must thank my dearest mum. But lol, the whole acknowledgement will be left to the post of the final version of the whole Sextet, including the first movement and this movement. This is a very long movement and commentary and I don’t expect anyone to listen and read till the end. But if you do so, here is my deepest gratitude to you. Feel free to comment as well, I would be very thankful to have received them. Thank you!!!!!

Henry

IT DROPPED !?!?!?!

Even though this is a second movement, I feel like it can represent an entire 3 part movement in itself. So I will try to address all 3 parts best I can (for now).

Part 1 - The Intro

This very neo classical / early romantic style intro is very strong, and quite dramatic. It reminds me of a Tchaikovsky intro but in a somewhat different style (your style!). 1:50 to 2+ is tremendously well done, with lots of forward progression with your harmony. This is a clear example of how to use harmony to your advantage, for the sake of the piece's progression. Sometimes composers get crazy with harmony but the harmony doesn't necessarily serve the right purpose.

Tell me something, at 4:15, are you trying to show us your fugue subject from movement 1? I think I hear hints of it...

Part 2 - The fugue

The key changing in this piece is both sharp at times, and as smooth as butter at other times. And the many different styles that I've heard displays the turbulence of emotions here. The first major mood change after the intro is when you segue into your fugue subject starting out with the pentatonic scale. I feel like you slowly bring us back to movement 1, then BAM, you hit us hard with the motif from the first movement. I had to rewind a few times so that I could understand how you achieved this smooth transition (around the 9-10 minute mark). The fugue itself is a very complex work, and the recapitulation can be used as a study on how to modulate from key to key. BTW, I love this fugue so much, from both your first movement, and especially in this movement! There's just so much content here, that this piece can't be listened to just once!

Part 3 - The chant, and metamorphosis (as I call it!)

At the 20 minute mark, the last section where your chant begins, it brings me a sense of sorrow, with a hint of peace and finding oneself. And at the 26 minute mark, this is the part of reckoning, or the "return" as you say. This section is like a metamorphosis, transitioning from deep sadness, to a rebirth. It's a grand movement within a movement, but most importantly, it evokes a sense of realization and completion.

And Henry, this is what your music is about. It's not just "music". It's a very well crafted and beautiful story. This one is particularly a sad and emotional one. The ending was joyful, but at the same time, I still felt sadness. I know this is a very long work, but I encourage people to listen through the full piece. Maybe others will have different interpretations, but listening to longer works like this will help you learn how to listen to the story, not just to the tones of the music.

I listened to the whole thing in a beautiful spring day taking a walk through the city and ending up listening to the newest part sitting on a bench in a park. The setting was lovely and it allowed me to fully appreciate the powerful music. I don't have an articulate review, but only a few impressions. I hope I'll have time to deepen analysis and listening.

I did not remember how pulsating with life and intensity the first movement is. There is a moment when the pulsating, breathing vibration crystallizes in the imitative section. Strangely, it is like a oasis of silence and holding of breath, before the pulse comes back, running over everything else. It is joy, but also somewhat sinister, as if it is *too much* joy. At the beginning of the second movement, joy leaves room to tension, breaking, almost cruelty. And then the grosse Fuge begins. Pentatonic melodies disappear, pulsating joy disappears, even the breaking sighs of the initial part of the movement disappear, all swallowed by counterpunctal order. The cosmic clash seems to be between the pulsating, dancing hymn to life (Beethoven 7th...) and the regimented emotions of the fugue: the emotions are there but we look at them as if through the glass of a cabinet. But the glass cracks when pentatonal passages start appearing in the fugue again. In fact, to me this whole composition seems to be a wonderful attempt to join east and west, pentatonic and counterpoint, sonata and trenody, the past and the present, now easing unearthed contradictions, now acknowledging and espousing them. The pulse comes back at the end, closing a circle that invites many listens because has many facets, reflections, sparkles, and dark corners despite the luminous ascending ending.

Thank you Henry!

The dark atmosphere at the beginning is well achieved with the background of the “tremolando”.
The change to a much more contrapuntal part from about 2:10 is very opportune, and I emphasize here the transition from one to the other, which is something that we often neglect, but in this case is perceived without abruptness.
There are super rich and very different textures, as for example from measure 95.
An unexpected and pleasantly new evolution from measure 147, with some very interesting harmonies at 153..... (I had to stop to see what was really going on there!).
Nice surprise with some “advanced” techniques like those beats and portamento.
The truth is that the passage from one theme to another is very fluid.
Good climax up to measure 197.
I find the fugue very beautiful. I am always surprised by fugues based on subjects of short duration. It reminds me of those very contrapuntal pieces that I like so much (Metamorphosen by Strauss and Verklärte Nacht by Schönberg).
The part from measure 754 is amazing, it sounds like an organ.

Congratulations for such a huge and beautiful work.

like I said, huge practice and rehearsal skill issue

anyway

again like I said, I only listened to the piece very fragmented, so i don't have an overall opinion. however the score looks like it gives great pathos like schubert, and complex perhaps like the peak of late romanticism

bar 30. the tremolo quaver. I think it feels weird on the bow. just take out the tremolo on this last note of the bar?
bar 170. I hate you. jk. moving on...

I love the melodies on the cello, I'm sure if it's played irl it will sound very attractive